NEWARK – A Little Egg Harbor resident who acknowledged being a member of the Genovese crime family was sentenced to 38 months in prison Tuesday on racketeering and tax evasion charges, authorities said.

John “Fu” Breheney, 49, collected “unlawful debt” from people as part of the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey.

As part of the scheme, a crew headed by Joseph Lascala, an 80-year-old Monroe man, ran a Costa Rica-based sports-betting website, according to court documents.

Monetary transactions were not conducted online; rather, bettors made their sporting predictions on the website and either collected their winnings or paid their losses to crew members in person, the office said.

Threats of physical violence were made to those who did not make timely payments, the office said.

Before the Internet, Breheney and others who participated in the scheme would have been considered “bookies” instead of the website’s “agents,” according to the office.

Several other New Jersey and New York residents have already pleaded guilty to various charges related to the scheme, the office said.

In addition to his time in prison, U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi also sentenced Breheney to three years of supervised release, fined him $16,000 and ordered him to forfeit $400,000, the office said.

Patsy Pirozzi, 75, of Suffern, New York, was also sentenced Tuesday to 22 months in prison. Pirozzi previously pleaded guilty before Cecchi to an information charging him with conspiracy to violate the RICO organized-crime law.

Eric Patten 37, of Bayonne, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Cecchi to an information charging him with conspiracy to violate the RICO law.